SchspIN

An Actress's Thoughts

17. September 2015
by SchspIN
Comments Off on Das Katholikenproblem lösen – For a Thousand Lives: Be Human

Das Katholikenproblem lösen – For a Thousand Lives: Be Human

English Version follows German.

#refugeeswelcome

Vor mehr als zwanzig Jahren, im Oktober 1992, erschien in der monatszeitung für eine gewaltfreie, herrschaftslose gesellschaft graswurzel revolution DAS KATHOLIKENPROBLEM LÖSEN.
Dieser Text weist aus norddeutscher Sicht auf die Gefahren katholischer Zuwanderung hin. Ich erhielt freundlicherweise vor vielen Jahren von dem Autor und der graswurzel revolution die Erlaubnis, diesen Text in einem literarischen Bühnenprogramm und auch sonst öffentlich zu verwenden.
Aus aktuellem Anlass hier eine alte Aufnahme: Das Katholikenproblem lösen (4:09 min).

[soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/224268508″ params=”color=ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false” width=”100%” height=”120″ iframe=”true” /]

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Und außerdem möchte ich – als Filmschauspielerin und als EWA Botschafterin für Deutschland – auf [Weiterlesen – Read On]

13. August 2015
by SchspIN
1 Comment

Ask yourself: What would DRadio Kultur do?

Lately I have heard quite a few people saying that it is the female comissioning editors’ fault so few women directors are working in German television. I have not found any reliable data to support this, but if the appallingly low figures for women directors are anything to go by, then it must be at least also the men’s fault. But that is a topic for another day.

Today’s text is about a public radio show, run by an all female editorial staff, and 2 1/2 years of its weekly programme – which appear to represent a certain type of woman blindness.

This article is a bit on the extensive side – at the end you will find all figures in a gallery.

Ask yourself: What would DRadio Kultur do? And then…

In the film HOLIDAY (1938, directed by George Cukor) Cary Grant’s character Johnny Case at one point says to Katharine Hepburn’s Linda:

When I find myself in a position like this, I ask myself what would General Motors do? And then I do the opposite!

This won’t have been the first time that the expression “ask what would X do, so I will do the opposite” was used in a film, actually, the film HOLIDAY (based on the play HOLIDAY by Philip Barry from 1928) is a remake itself. Already in 1930 Edward H. Griffith had made a film of this story, and incidentally the actor Edward Everett Horton – who played a number of distinct supporting roles to Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn as well as to Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire – was cast as Johnny Case’s best friend Nick Potter in both the 1930 and the 1938 film version. The character Linda (played by Katharine Hepburn) is based partially on Gertrude Sanford Legendre (b 1902, d. 2000), a US-American socialite who was active as a spy in WWII, she was also a big-game hunter, environmentalist, owner of a plantation and she took part in expeditions.

Actually I only wanted to find out who wrote the script for HOLIDAY to give a proper source to the quote, it were Donald Ogden Stewart and Sidney Buchman, who a few years later were added to the infamous Hollywood blacklist of the in the 1940s / 1950s by the House Un-American Activities Committee.

But now back to today’s topic, the radio show “FEUILLETON – CONVERSATIONS WITH LISTENERS” of Deutschlandradio Kultur that is broadcast every saturday between 9 and 11 a.m. The show has a host and one or two guests, who discuss a more or less current topic, and listeners can participate by calling in, sending emails or using social media platforms.

The Guests: Looking back on 2 1/2 years of CONVERSATIONS

What we see (or rather: hear) is quite alarming. 2013, 2014 and in the first half of 2015 more than half the show had no female guests. On the other hand, only 10 % were without men. About a third had only one guest. In general, the first half of 2015 shows an improvement over 2014. But still the balance is quite negative, for now, considering all shows up to Aug 8, 2015 has 22,0 % male and 78,0 % female guests, 65,4 % of the shows were without women and 7,7 % without men.

The Hosts

In 2013 and 2014 there was roughly the same number of female and male hosts. In the first six months of 2015 this changed drastically, only every fourth (!) show had a female host behind the microphone. Klaus Pokatzky, who joined the programme in July 2014, has already hosted half the shows in 2015. Pokatzky is roughly in his early 60s, he is known for interrupting calling listeners quite abruptly regularly (should the other hosts also interrupt, they at least do it more low-key) and he speaks more about himself than his colleagues do, so a change in tone.

ImGespr_Mods_en

The Topics

How rarely the editors of the show have women on their agenda we can not only deduce from the guest lists but also from the choice of topics. Two Examples:

March 8 is International Women’s Day. On March 6, 2015 the German parliament (Bundestag) passed the law for a 30 % gender quota for the boards of the top 100 companies. Was this the topic in CONVERSATIONS on March 7? No. Instead, they discussed VACCINATIONS, YES OR NO with two male guests.

A Quota for Women has not been topic in 2013, 2014 or 2015 in any context.

March 20 2015 was Equal Pay Day, in Germany women still earn considerably less than men. Was this topic in the show on March 21? No. Instead: WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE? One male guest.

Unequal Pay and the Gender Pay Gap have not been topic in 2013, 2014 or 2015.

The ,classical’ women’s topic Family was 3 times on the show: on Feb 16, 2013 (“What must be changed about family policy’, 2 F), on Nov 2, 2013 (“Living separetely – and bringing up the children together” 1 F 1 M) and on Feb 2, 2014 (“Children and career and love and… the difficult balancing act between family and job” 1 F 1 M). Or maybe 4 times, when we count “Reproductive medicine” as a family topic as well (March 29, 2014). Actually, for this topic I find it double strange that there were no female guests on the show.

The next diagram shows all topics from 2013, 2014 and 2015 (up to Aug 8) that had only male guests in the studio:

Maenner_Themen_en

The Ages of the Guests

For 2014 and the first six months of 2015 I have analized the ages of the guests. My statistics are incomplete (first column kA = keine Angabe, no data), because I could not find out all birth dates. For comparison I take the age a person was on January 1 of the year, and the ages are grouped in 5 years (e.g. 40 = 36 – 40 yrs).

Two things are remarkable: very few guests younger than 36 years were on the show, as opposed to a great number of guests from retiment age groups. Why is the overall guest list for the 1,5 years not more diverse? Young and old people can bring different and interesting opinions and experiences into the programme, just as women and men can.

One expert on the show, whom I called to find out his age (36) had the theory that the imbalance in favour of older guests might be connected to the target group of the programme. That is possible. Although I ask myself if e.g. older listeners really don’t like listening to younger experts as well? And the Chicken-or-Egg question must also be asked: Is the show design to fit the target group or does the show form its target group through its topics and guests? But that is a question for another day.

Professors

Yes, Professors play a big part on the show. The next two diagrams show, how many active and retired professors had been invited as experts. There were more male professors on the show than female guests.

The Makers of the Show

Women not being visible as experts – and as potential role models – is not only a problem occuring in CONVERSATIONS, we also have it in TV talk-shows, on the panel of conferences and in documentaries for example. Men explain the world, men are the experts, men live the life.
More and more people are irritated by this. As an example: journalist Torsten Körner said in his review of the documentary DIE INSEL / THE ISLAND about West Berlin during the times of the Wall (Deutschlandradio Kultur, 21. Oct.14):

Looking back something is missing in this film. There were round about 16, 17, 18 interview partners of which only 3 were women. In retrospect I would have appreciated the female perspective, and also some East Berlin people looking at the City of West Berlin. In the film it is only West Berlin people and a few US Americans…

A year ago I spoke with editorial head of CONVERSATIONS Susanne Schröder on the phone (It’s a Men’s Radio World? 14. Aug. 14); she convinced me that she really would like to have more women on the show.

But if anything, the situation has deteriorated since then. And this despite “too few women in talk-shows, on panels, at conferences” are broadly being discussed, despite the founding of the database Speakerinnen (she-speakers) Speakerinnen.org, and also despite us living in the digital age where it is much easier to find female experts via the internet. In the blog text mentioned just now I published the results of a first, not too extensive search, where I found female experts for the radio shows and topics, that had only men in the studio. Women who are ready to appear on the radio show on a saturday morning. Why are the editors of the programme unable to succeed in a similar way?

  • Could it be that they have the wrong networks?
  • Could it be that their data base is too one-sided?
  • Could it be that they lack curiosity and creativity in their search for guests?
  • Could it be that they are not aware of the total extent of this miserable situation, because they don’t monitor their guests (gender, age) and topics?

I sent my text including suggestions for female experts to the makers of the show and waited for their comment. This is the answer I received from the Hörerservice / Listeners’ Service:

On behalf of the listeners’ service I have been in contact with the editors of the programme and was told that person in charge had already spoken with you on the phone in great detail about the points you raised. Please understand that we won’t comment on the subject again. Let me just say this: apparently you have only been counting the guests of the Saturday show CONVERSATIONS. When reforming the Dkultur programme in June we also introduced a ,Conversation on weekdays. If you consider those shows as well you will certainly be satisfied to find out, that the ratio between female and male guests is quite even. And also: the editors of CONVERSATIONS are only women! This just as an information for you.

Indeed, my evaluations don’t include week-day shows, but for a good reason. They have a similar title but basically they are completely different. They are 60 min. long (instead of 2 hours on the Saturdays), they always have only one guest who is being interviewed on biographical questions or their latest book, – as opposed to the discussion of topics with the inclusion of listeners on Saturdays.

It is a pity that the editors have not commented on my article. I had actually hoped they would be happy about the many interesting female experts I had found for topics on the show. Oh well, “happy” is probably too strong a word.

Outlook

CONVERSATIONS is financed by public fees. Public radio has the obligation to provide information and to entertain, and to contribute to public opinion formation. And for that goal one-sidedness and blindness for women are counterproductive. The following quote by the chairman of Deutschlandradio, Dr. Willi Steul, is from 2013:

One cannot reasonably argue that men look upon the world with a gender specific perception. Therefore we men should always be aware of that. Also women have their gender specific experiences and perception. That means that only when regarding both perspectives in a roughly balanced manner are we able to picture reality in a roughly adequate way. (source)

I will send today’s article to the programmes chief editor Susanne Schröder. And also to Deutschlandradio chairman Dr. Willi Steul, to the radio’s women’s representative Ulrike Stengel and to the head of the broadcasting council Frank Schildt.
Should I get any answers I will publish them here.

Further Reading

In the German version I recommended 3 interesting articles that are unfortunately only in German. So I can give you just one sarcastic recommendation, the Gender Equity Tip Sheet which Bryan Gaensler posted on twitter.

27. July 2015
by SchspIN
Comments Off on Blimey, this is so German…

Blimey, this is so German…

Blimey, this is so German…

July 26, 2015 – Today’s text is about water. An d running. And a situation that is typically Geman.

Some of you may already know that I started running a year ago (Write a Blog and Ride a Porsche). I usually run 5,000 m, and have already participated in a few running events, actually only just yesterday! The 24th City-Night Berlin was held on the Kurfürstendamm (which is a really big and famous street). In our event we ran 2.5 km back and forth on a blocked part of the Ku’damm without cars – motivated by several samba groups and people lining the route.

After crossing the finishing line, we were greeted by volunteers with water, tea and beer (or non-alcoholic beer? I don’t know, I only drank tea and water). On the one hand I must say that I am always thrilled by how well these events are organized and how many people help, without whom the whole thing would not be possible. On the other hand I can’t help noticing the large piles of rubbish.

Intersport Olympialauf, Berlin.

Intersport Olympialauf, Berlin. Photo: SchspIN

There are plastic cups for the beverages, bio waste (because very often the runners are offered fruit, e.g. bananas, pieces of pineapple or melon) and paper (from distributed adversiting). So far I have not been at a running event which had organized waste separation. But that is a different matter.
Back to the City Night. So, I was crossing the finishing line, was handed my certificate and moved on to the tables with the water cups.

  • I: (take one) Thank you! (drink the water and hold the cup in the direction of a volunteer lady) Could you please fill it up again?
  • Volunteer: (hands me a full cup) Here you go!
  • I: Oh just pour it into my cup then you can use that one again.
  • Volunteer: (wants to put the full cup into my emty one)
  • I: No, just the water!
  • Volunteer: Alright. (pours the water from her cup into mine). But I have to throw it away anyway.
  • I: What?
  • Volunteer: Yes. We have to. That’s how we were instructed.

At this point maybe I should add that the volunteer was wearing rubber gloves. And that of course she had touched her cup only from the outside. That is to say that she took the cup with her glove-covered hand from the table, slightly tilted it to pour the water into my cup and then threw the empty cup into a bin. A cup that had been touched neither my hands that had run 5.000 m nor by my mouth. Not even our two cups had contact.

  • I: Aaaaaaaah!!!!!! This is so German!!!!!!!

No, this is not true. After all, I had just run 5.000 m. So I did not shout. Which I would not have done anyway. I spoke very quietly and moved on to the next table, the next volunteer. And filled my cup from one of the cups there. And the volunteer filled it up again and put it back on the table.

But still. What an instruction. What a waste. Absolutely incomprehensible. And of course there will always be people that go by these rules. As there will always be people that abide rules – or unwritten laws – in the film and TV industry (one example: TV ratings and lack of risk taking) or elsewhere, without even questioning the rule in the least. People who most of the times have no idea what the rule is for or what it should prevent. Who are satisfied that there is a rule and go along with it. ‘That’s how it is done’. And this is something I would call very German.

Foto: SchspIN

Photo: SchspIN

Today on the morning after the City Night Run, I went to the Olympic Stadion, where the European Maccabi Games will take place from July 27 to August 5. I had enlisted as a volunteer in the last minute. This was due to a radio interview I heard where one of the organizers talked about how difficult it had been to find sponsors for the games – many of the companies that usually sponsor sport events (like e.g. ‘my’ running events) had declined. So I thought I at least wanted to help a little. And at the same time pay back the help of the many volunteers at the running events. So anyway, we had an introductory session for the approx. 340 volunteers in the Kuppelsaal of the Olympic Stadion – where the fencing events had been held at the Olympics of 1936 that did not allow German Jews to participate – and where the fencing events will take place this week at the Maccabi Games.

Kuppelsaal, Detail. Foto: SchspIN

Kuppelsaal, Detail. Photo: SchspIN

The start of the session was delayed for a bit, so we sat and waited, and nearly everybody had a little water carton. I didn’t. I must have missed it when they were handed out. And I already had finished the water bottle I had brought along. So I asked the volunteer sitting next to me about these cartons, and he said they had been distributed, but there were still some left over there ‘on the stage’ (i.e. on the other side from us sitting on the round tribune). So I went over there, and yes, there were boxes with water artons but also lunch packet, on and behind tables. In short, it looked vey much like something “for later”. So I did not dare to take a water package. I noticed three elderly men standing a bit further off that gave the impression of people involved with the organization so I asked them halfheartedly about the water. And I was expecting them so say “You will all get the water later on with the lunch packets” or “The water has already been handed out, each only gets 1”. So basically I was expecting a typically German answer. But no. the Maccabi Games are a Jewish sports event. So the conversation was different.

  • I: Could I perhaps have a water package?
  • One Man: Is there any water?
  • I: Yes there is, but there also lunch packages right next to the water.
  • One Man: But are you thirsty?
  • Ich: Yes, actually I am.
  • One Man: Then you should take a water carton.
  • Ich: Yes, but maybe they are meant for later?
  • Der eine Mann (with a wink): It wouldn’t be good if you dehydrated here, so you should take a water carton now.

Is there any water? Are you thirsty?

Great. This is how simple questions can be. And solutions as well. And once again I am thinking about the film and TV industry.

Cheers!

Wasser und Volunteer Badge. Foto: SchspIN

Water and Volunteer Badge. Photo: SchspIN

7. July 2015
by SchspIN
Comments Off on Gender Equality & Film Industry

Gender Equality & Film Industry

Talk at German Film Union ver.di FilmUnion: Gender Equality & Film Industry

On June 11 the German union ver.di FilmUnion in Berlin held a talk on Gender Equality in the Film Industry (in German). I was asked to present some basic facts on the situation of women and men in the film and television industry behind and in front of the camera. These were my preliminary questions:

  • Who is working in which division?
  • Who is employed in which film?
  • Who is paid how much money?

These are the figures from my presentation.
We can clearly see for most film departments and groups of films (TV or cinema) that the share of female filmmakers actually working is less than their share within the department. The little data there is on wages and pay within the industry point to another disadvantage for women. So there is still a lot to be done by unions.
Following the galery you will find the original texts on SchspIN from which I took the figures.

These are some of the [Weiterlesen – Read On]

12. June 2015
by SchspIN
4 Comments

It’s the Men that Write the Scripts

It’s the Men that write the Scripts

I have no idea how many scripts for cinema and television are written by women and men respectively, but at least there are figures on how many scripts are actually shot.
In a number of investigations, like the 6- or 11-divisions-checks, I also investigated scriptwriters, today let’s look at them separately, for six groups of films:

  • Nominations for German Film Awards 2011-2015 (in all categories nominated fictional films without children’s flms)
  • Nominations for German TV Awards 2011-15 ((in all categories nominated fictional films without children’s flms)
  • Top 100 German films (cinema) 2012-14
  • ARD TATORT / German cop drama: first screenings 2011-14
  • ZDF TV movie of the week: first screenings 2012-14
  • ARD TV movie Wednesday: first screenings 2011-14

 

Drehbuch_6Filmgr_en

Statistics are a fairly good basis for discussions, and at the same time I notice that dealing with them for a while you sort of get accustomed to the low values “oh, these are not so bad, even shares of women above 20 % this time, oh, even more than 30 %, and partly nearly reaching 40 %!”. But of course it is “bad”. Then these figures show that in none of the years and for none of the film groups the 50 % share was reached, and not even a share of 41,7 %, which is the female share for all members of the Screen Writers’ Guild VDD.

Demanding 30 or 50 % share of power, contracts, funding and pay often lead to heated debates and sooner or later someone will argue that there are not enough suitable women available and also that (in a number of cases) the percentage in question does not reflect the share of women within the industry, the peope available, the proposals etc.

The female directors’ initiative Pro Quote Regie, that include graded demands of 30 %, 42 % and 50 % female directors in public television productions for example often are confronted with the argument that they are asking for too much, since 50 % is more than the share of women among film school graduates in directing (42 %).

But on the other hand at the moment and probably for the last decades men are overrepresented, but this is so ’normal’ that nobody notices this any more or gets uneasy because of it: in parliaments (where society is represented), in front of the camera (where stories are being told that take place in society), as professors at universities and more … and in this case, where realized scripts are concerned, disproportionately many men. If we take the share of men in the Script Writers Guild as reference – 58 %, which is clearly far less than the 73 % which is the averaged share of men for scripts in the 6 groups of films in the investigated years.

Obviously this does not mean at all that men are worse at story telling or that all men write the same scripts. Take the Danish political drama BORGEN as an example with an abundance of great female and male characters. This series is based on an idea from Adam Price who also developed and wrote most of the 30 episodes together with his two male colleagues Tobias Lindholm and Jeppe Gjervig Gram. But of course there is the risk that a future Sally Wainwright (SCOTT AND BAILEY, HAPPY VALLEY and LAST TANGO IN HALIFAX) won’t get a chance. Therefore there are a number of reasons to start investigating the reasons for this big majority of male written scripts in TV and cinemas, if this onesidedness is to be corrected (next figure shows the reverse from the first one: share of male script writers in 6 film groups, 2011 – 15):

Drehbuch_6Filmgr_M_en

Some months ago I evaluated the 100 top grossing German films in 2014 and realized that there is a much stronger connection between the gender of the first role on the cast list to the gender of the script writer than to that of the director (The Top 100 German Films 2014).

In this context a recently published evaluation of cartoons in the US-American magazine New Yorker is quite interesting (Someone did a statistical analysis of New Yorker cartoons, and it’s actually pretty depressing) . The results show that 70 % of all characters in the cartoons are white men. Women (and ethnical minorities) appear far far less and usually in a stereotyped manner. Not really surprising is the conclusion that the (very few) female comic artists published would be far more likely to also draw female characters.

Of course comics are not film scripts.

Age and Money

No, this is not a reference to ages or wages of actresses but to that of female scriptwriters. Some weeks back it was announced in US media (e.g. Reuters, April 20, by Maria Caspani) that actress Meryl Streep will financially support a screenwriters lab for female writers over the age of 40. This lab will be organized by Women in Film and Televison New York (NYWIFT) and will fund eight female script writers over 40.

This project can be seen as a reaction to a recent study that the percentage of female script writers in the USA is decreasing, from 17 % in 2009 to 15 % in 2014 – which is much lower than the German figures – and also that female script writers earn less money than their male colleagues.

As far as I know no well-grounded investigation on the situation of female and male script writers in Germany has been undertaken so far. But there are a lot of questions worth answering:

How many scripts by women and how many by men are made into films? How are contracts awarded? How is the age distribution of active script writers? How many write on their own, how many in teams? How about these writers’ rooms and similar structures, is that something only used for Dailies? How about the wages, is there a gender pay gap?

Some of these questions could be answered by the broadcasting corporations theoretically, but at the moment I don’t quite see this coming unfortunately.

One way to find out more about the pay situation would be, if the Screen Writers Guild VDD undertook a confidential survey among its members. Actually this is something all film unions could investigate. Money you earn is something that (in Germany) hardly anybody talks about which is a shame because the gender pay gap will decrease with growing transparency for wages.

Outlook

“What is the state of gender equality“ was the topic of a discussion at last year’s 3rd World Conference of Script Writers in Warsaw, according to a short report on the website of the VDD (in German). The text continues:

Low budget feature films and badly paid documentaries are still women’s domain. The challenge of balancing children and career is still not solved, precariously paid jobs in film and TV productions are the only chance for many women to continue working in the industry. Of course also a lot of male colleagues are struck by the decline of career chances and paid work.

The article ends with a reference to a resolution – It’s Past Time: TV and Film Industry Must Address Gender Inequality – that was passed at the Warsaw Conference and that had been proposed by the Writers Guild of Canada, well worth reading.

 

7. June 2015
by SchspIN
Comments Off on Sollen wir sie reinlassen? – Open the Door, Let ’em in!

Sollen wir sie reinlassen? – Open the Door, Let ’em in!

English Version follows German.

Spitzen: Der Deutsche Bühnenverein und die Akademie der Künste haben erstmals eine Präsidentin gewählt, die FIFA ein neues Exekutivkomitee und einen rücktretenden Präsidenten, und der BFFS und die Commerzbank hadern mit den eigenen Vorgaben.

Wollen wir sie endlich reinlassen?

Über die Genderrepräsentanz in Vorständen von Filmverbänden habe ich ja bereits drei mal gebloggt (Teil 1: Die Verbände, Teil 2: Der BVR, Teil 3: Der BFFS). Und auch in anderen gesellschaftlichen, z.B. politischen und wirtschaftlichen, Zusammenhängen ist aktuell die Vertretung von Frauen und Männern in Führungsgremien bei uns und auch international immer wieder Thema. Frauenquoten oder Selbstverpflichtungen für Aufsichtsräte und paritätisch zu besetzende Kandidat/innenlisten sind Anzeichen dafür, dass der Glaube an das regelt sich schon von alleine oder es ist doch egal langsam schwindet.
Ich werfe heute einen Blick auf drei Wahlen der vergangenen Woche. In zwei Fällen aus dem Kultursektor wurden erstmals seit über 150 bzw. über 300 Jahren Frauen an die Spitze gewählt, – bei weiterhin männlich dominierten Spitzengremien. Wir dürfen gespannt sein ob sich etwas verändert in den jeweiligen Organisationen, ihrer Politik und ihrer Kunst. Die dritte Wahl fand in einem Verband statt, dessen Exekutivorgan per Satzung einen Frauenanteil von 4 % hat, und der die Interessen von Männern und Frauen [Weiterlesen – Read On]

29. May 2015
by SchspIN
1 Comment

Wer schön sein will, muss leiden – Just the Way She Looks Tonight

English Version follows German.

Wie wichtig ist die Kleidung von Filmfrauen und anderen berufstätigen Frauen am Arbeitsplatz? Was ist mit den Schuhen? Cannes, ESC und die normale Businesswelt. Dazu weibliche Hauptrollen und die Altersfrage. Und ein Besuch bei der Zahnärztin.

Wer schön dabei sein will, muss leiden

Bei Filmfestspielen, -premieren oder -preisverleihungen wird über Filme berichtet, aber auch immer wieder über die Garderobe von Regissseurinnen, Schauspielerinnen, Produzentinnen und anderen Frauen, die über die roten Teppiche schreiten. Seitenlange Bildergalerien in Magazinen und Internetportalen zeigen die Roben (und lassen sich mitunter genüsslich über vermeintliche Stilsünden und Unvorteilhaftigkeiten aus). Das mag für Modeinteressierte sehr informativ sein und der PR  dienen, hat aber eher weniger mit den Filmen oder der Arbeit der Filmfrauen vor oder hinter der Kamera zu tun. Genau wie die Kleidung von Politikerinnen und Managerinnen im Grunde völlig unwichtig sein sollte, aber regelmäßig thematisiert wird, deutlich häufiger als die Kleidung von Männern – und natürlich auf Kosten anderer, politischer Inhalte.

Die 68. Internationalen Filmfestspiele in Cannes

Gerade gingen die Filmfestspiele in Cannes zuende, wie Ihr vermutlich schon gehört oder gelesen habt wurden anlässlich der Premiere des Wettbewerbbeitrags CAROL (Regie: Todd Haynes) mehrere Frauen am Roten Teppich abgewiesen, weil sie flache Schuhe trugen. Das Magazin Screen Daily berichte als erstes (Cannes: Women denied Palais entry for wearing flats. Andreas Wiseman, 19. Mai 2015), und gibt die offizielle Reaktion so wieder: „Das Festival lehnte eine Stellungnahme ab bestätigte aber, dass Frauen verpflichtet sind, zu Vorführungen am Roten Teppich Stöckelschuhe zu tragen“.

Stöckelstulpen. Foto: SchspIN

Stöckelstulpen – falls der Weg zum Roten Teppich aus Kopfsteinpflaster ist. Foto: SchspIN

Nun ist das mit (in-)formellen Kleiderordnungen so eine Sache. Es ist völlig [Weiterlesen – Read On]

4. May 2015
by SchspIN
3 Comments

Berliner Theatertreffen 2015. Und Rollentausch. – Berlin Theatre Festival 2015. And Gender Switching.

English Version follows German.

Heute geht es um das 52. Theatertreffen, das aktuell in Berlin stattfindet. Und um Rollentausch – d.h. das Besetzen von Rollen mit Schauspieler/innen des anderen Geschlechts (in Theater und Film).

Berliner Theatertreffen 2015. Und Rollentausch.

Zum Theatertreffen werden jedes Jahr die zehn bemerkenswertesten Theaterinszenierungen im deutschsprachigen Raum einer Saison eingeladen. Auch dieses Jahr sind wieder alte Stücke am Start (das älteste, JOHN GABRIEL BORKMAN von Henrik Ibsen, wurde im Jahr 1896 uraufgeführt – eingeladen ist die Inszenierung von Karin Henkel, Deutsches Schauspielhaus Hamburg) und neu entstandene wie das Rechercheprojekt COMMON GROUND, das Regisseurin Yael Ronen gemeinsam mit ihrem Ensemble am Berliner Gorki Theater entwickelte.
Außerdem sind zwei Dramatisierungen von Spielfilmen dabei: WARUM LÄUFT HERR R. AMOK? (Regie Susanne Kennedy, Münchner Kammerspiele) nach dem Film von Rainer Werner Fassbinder und Michael Fengler (1970) und DAS FEST (Regie Christoph Rüping, Schauspiel Stuttgart) nach dem Dogma 95-Film von Thomas Vinterberg und Mogens Rukov (1998).
Hier alle 10 Produktionen, einige statistische Auswertungen zu den insgesamt 30 Inszenierungen 2013 bis 2015, [Weiterlesen – Read On]

28. April 2015
by SchspIN
4 Comments

Berlin 2055

English Version follows German.

CIB Comic Invasion Berlin Wettbewerb zu BERLIN 2055

Als Schauspielerin ist es nie verkehrt, Preise zu gewinnen, aber nicht nur deshalb habe ich mich gestern sehr über diese Benachrichtigung gefreut: “If you don’t know already: You won one of the prizes of the CIB-Zine-Contest“ („Falls Du es noch nicht wusstest, Du hast einen der Preise beim CIB-Zine-Contest gewonnen“). Ich wusste es tatsächlich nicht, denn als die CIB – das ist die Comic Invasion Berlin – am 18. und 19. April stattfand, war ich gerade in Dortmund beim IFFF, dem Internationalen Frauenfilmfestival. Dort gewann die japanische Regisseurin Naomi Kawase den Wettbewerb mit ihrem Spielfilm ２つ目の窓 FUTATSUME NO MADO / STILL THE WATER, der letztes Jahr schon in Cannes gelaufen war (２つ目の窓 heißt wörtlich ZWEITES FENSTER). Einige von Euch haben vielleicht ihren Film 殯の森 MOGARI NO MORI / DER WALD DER TRAUER gesehen, mit dem sie 2007 den Grand Prix du Jury in Cannes gewann (lief auch auf dem Filmfest Hamburg! Und irgendwann – deutsch synchronisiert – im deutschen Fernsehen, ich weiß nicht mehr auf welchem Sender, aber es war ziemlich spät nachts). Ich war also wie gesagt – viel zu kurz – beim IFFF in Dortmund und verpasste so leider die komplette CIB und eben auch die Preisverleihung im bereits zum 3. Mal stattfindenden Comicwettbewerb, an dem ich vor einigen Wochen teilgenommen hatte – diesmal mit dem Thema Berlin 2055:

Wie soll Berlin in 40 Jahren für Euch aussehen? [Weiterlesen – Read On]

14. April 2015
by SchspIN
Comments Off on „Ich möchte keine Filme mehr…“ – “I don’t want any more films…”

„Ich möchte keine Filme mehr…“ – “I don’t want any more films…”

Jana Dolan del blog 500 dias de cine con ella me hizo una entrevista que fue publicada hace unas semanas en castellano con el título “No quiero más películas en las que solo los hombres actúan y las mujeres acompañan, aman y están guapas.” léela aquí (clic).
Me han permitido publicar la entrevista en alemán e inglés en SchspIN, y eso hago hoy. Muchas gracias a Madrid!
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English Version follows German.

Letzten Herbst wurde ich ich von Jana Dolan angeschrieben, die mich um ein Intervew für das spanische Blog 500 dias de cine con ella bat. Dieses Interview erschien dann vor ein paar Wochen unter dem Titel “No quiero más películas en las que solo los hombres actúan y las mujeres acompañan, aman y están guapas.”. Hier findet Ihr es: (klick!)
Ich bekam freundlicherweise die Erlaubnis, das Interview auch auf Deutsch und Englisch in SchspIN zu veröffentlichen. Vielen Dank dafür nach Madrid! Und herzlichen Dank an Jana Dolan für die anregenden, teilweise nicht so einfach zu beantwortenden Fragen.

Jana Dolan schreibt zum Hintergrund: